Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse
Chapter 266: Hell’s Terrain

Jack and Shol sat on two branches of a high tree like birds who’d grown tired of having wings. Their mood was somber.

“Hell is a large planet,” Shol explained. “Several times larger than your Earth. It is only used as a prison and an elite training ground, which results in it being very sparsely inhabited. Ninety-nine percent of the surface is untamed wilderness.”

“So we have room to play,” Jack replied, nodding. “Any idea how to find Dordok?”

“That’s the captain of the Trampling Ram, correct?”

“Yes.”

“I suggest we don’t prioritize him. If he’s at the late D-Grade, as you said, then he’ll either be inside the prison or at a high-level hunting zone. If it’s the former, you can forget about rescuing him. If it’s the latter, it will still be very difficult, but doable after you level up significantly.”

Jack frowned. “Can you explain?”

“There is a large facility on this planet; a prison. It’s where most of the D-Grade criminals of the constellation go. However, it is headed by the Warden, the late C-Grade overseer of this planet. Breaking out is impossible, and invading it is even more impossible. If your captain is still there, we’ll have to wait.”

“Wait for what? Where else could he be?”

Shol revealed a hard smile. “Remember how I told you that Hell functions as training grounds for the Animal Kingdom’s inner disciples? The way this works is that there are several zones on the planet used as low, mid, and high-level hunting zones. There is also one peak-level zone. These zones contain D-Grade prisoners of suitable levels, who are forbidden from leaving the zone borders or working with each other. The inner disciples enter the hunting zones as teams of three to five people, and they hunt down any prisoners they can find. The prisoners can fight back, but since they are not allowed to work together, the damage they can inflict on teams of similarly-leveled cultivators is limited.”

Jack frowned, taking a moment to digest this information. “So they release prisoners, then have the inner disciples hunt them down?”

“Yes. It gives them both levels and fighting experience.”

“That’s brutal. It’s also odd. They just release prisoners into the wild? What if they find a way to leave the planet, or escape their determined zones? What if they decide to work together despite the rules, and suddenly the Animal Kingdom has a D-Grade revolution on their hands? Not saying they would succeed, but they could take many inner disciples with them.”

“It’s not that simple.” Shol shook his head. “The things I just described are more than simple rules. I don’t know the details, but the Warden possesses some sort of controlling Dao. When he gets his hands on the prisoners, going against his orders is impossible.”

Jack’s frown deepened. “So these prisoners are thrown into the wild and chased like animals?”

“Unfortunately.”

“And you’re saying that the captain might be there as well.”

“Either that, or he’s still trapped in the prison. They don’t release everyone at once, only to replenish the numbers when a previous prisoner is killed.”

“So people could be hunting him as we speak. He might die at any moment.”

“Yes.”

“Shol, that’s horrible. We must hurry up and find him.”

“Don’t get hasty.” Shol threw Jack a warning glance. “What exactly are you going to do? Rush into a high-level hunting zone? It will contain teams of late D-Grade Animal Kingdom cultivators, and you cannot even handle one of them. Even if I handle them for you, there is no guarantee I can beat them, and even if I do, I cannot necessarily stop them all from escaping. We’ll be discovered; and the second that happens, peak D-Grade deacons will be sent after us. No.” He shook his head. “Trying to rescue Dordok now is rushing head-first into disaster.”

“Then, what do you suggest? I stay here and level up while he’s running for his life?”

“What do you suggest?” Shol gave him a hard look. “That’s our only option, Jack. If you care about this guy so much, then level up as fast as possible and pray that he survives until then.”

“He saved my life.”

“Then save him back—but killing yourself will help nobody. Be careful. Level up as fast as you can without taking unnecessary risks. Listen, I will be honest; what we’re doing is already the height of risk. I would never condone it if Master’s reputation wasn’t on the line. We cannot afford to make things any harder on ourselves. Saving Dordok will be great if possible, but let’s not stick our necks out just to fail anyway.”

Shol’s words came rapidly and rigidly. He was not angry, just intense—and Jack remembered that this man had dropped everything, had left the faction and master he was deeply loyal to, had burned his cape, and was here risking his life to help Jack.

He took a deep breath. “You’re right,” he said. “Let’s do our best, prioritizing our survival…but if the chance appears, please forgive me for taking a small extra risk to save Dordok.”

Shol’s gaze was iron, but he nodded. “I guess I can do that.”

“Good. So, what’s the plan?”

“The plan, right.”

Shol sat back down, calming himself. The nearby birds that had flown away earlier—eagle-like, large like human children, brown-feathered, and with blue beaks—slowly returned to the tree, sensing that this monumental human’s anger was dissipating.

“When inner disciples enter the hunting zones, casualties occur. It’s not too rare for entire teams to be wiped out by prisoners who played their cards right. Therefore, if you enter a hunting zone and annihilate a team or two, nobody will bat an eye. Let a decent amount of time pass between raids, and you can even get away with more.”

“So I hunt the hunters.”

“Exactly.”

“I like that. And what will you be doing in the meantime?”

“Protecting you from the shadows. You saw me turn invisible before; I have a concealing skill taught to me by Okmer, the librarian back in the estate. It was tough to master, but it lets me completely erase my presence as long as nobody gets too close. I can use that to watch you from afar and intervene if anything goes wrong.”

“Hmm.”

Jack was hesitating. In paper, this sounded great. However, his experiences so far had taught him that the fear of death was an essential factor if he wanted to progress as quickly as possible. With Shol watching over him, would he really be forced to go all-out?

Plus, his Dao Tree of the Fist was protesting. What was he to need constant protection, a coward?

“I think it’s better if I go alone,” he finally said, explaining the first reason. “I get the sense that my progress will be much more rapid if there is nobody waiting to save me… Plus, my Dao would protest otherwise, which would make meditation difficult. Perhaps it’s best if you use this time to find out Dordok’s whereabouts.”

Shol frowned. “If you die, that will be terrible.”

“I will be careful—as careful as I can, anyway. But I should be fine for now. You saw how I handled those two at the starship. If I start from low-level hunting zones, I am confident that I can deal with entire teams, especially if I get the jump on them.”

“Hmm.” His frown intensified. “As much as I hate to admit it, you make sense. Fine. Let’s do that. However, you must make sure that nobody escapes to report on you.”

“Of course. However, what if they report me while we’re fighting? There is a faction telepathy function, correct?”

“Only for a limited number of people per faction. As long as you’re not going after deacons, you’ll be fine.”

“I have another question.”

“Do say.”

“This Warden you mentioned… What if he comes after us? If he spreads his perception over a hunting zone, finding me will be trivial, and there is no way I can escape a late C-Grade—or any C-Grade, for that matter.”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Shol replied with confidence. “The Warden has better things to do than scan random hunting zones, even if a couple groups go missing. Plus, even if he tries, it won’t be too easy—these hunting zones are the size of small continents, so even a late C-Grade would need to fly over to scan it accurately. As for hunting us down… That just won’t happen. It would be dishonorable for the Animal Kingdom to send a C-Grade after D-Grades. If they find us, they’ll just send deacons. Who will kill us nonetheless, but at least we’ll be able to resist a bit.”

“Are you sure about that? When I was at the E-Grade, the Kingdom sent three D-Grade Hounds after me.”

“That was different. You were running throughout the galaxy, and they needed to find you. Here, in the epicenter of the Animal Kingdom’s influence, the available D-Grades should be more than enough to handle us.” Seeing Jack’s doubtful look, Shol continued. “Trust me, Jack. You may not believe it, but the B-Grade factions care a lot about their reputation. As long as we don’t throw ourselves at the Warden by invading his prison or something equally stupid, he won’t act personally.”

“Alright. I trust you.”

“As you should.”

“So, I find a low-level hunting zone and hunt the inner disciples, making sure to let no one escape.”

“You should also avoid prisoners. We don’t know the extent of the Warden’s control over them.”

“Alright. And as I do that, you’ll be scouring the planet and trying to find out anything you can about Dordok.”

“Exactly.”

“But really, don’t try to protect me. Let me go alone. I promise it will be fine.”

“If I said that I won’t, then I won’t. I swear it on Master’s name.”

Jack was taken aback. Truth be told, he had expected Shol to tail him in secret anyway…but he wouldn’t take such an oath in vain, would he?

“Why the surprise?” Shol said with a smirk. “My concealment skill is not that effective. I can hide during battle, but to trail you in secret for weeks would be impossible.”

“Oh,” Jack replied. “I guess that’s good.”

“Heh. Getting cold feet?”

“Never. I’m just worried about you now—if your skill is weak, you may be discovered before me.”

“I’ll manage. As will you.”

“It goes without saying.”

The two men exchanged a battle-ready smile. Shol whipped out a parchment from his robes, unfurling it before Jack. “This is a map of the entire planet,” he said.

There were dozens of continents, along with dozens of oceans. Jack couldn’t quite grasp the scale, but if these continents were similar in size to the Earth ones, this planet was huge.

“It’s big,” was all he said.

“Not at all. It’s just a piece of paper.” Shol pointed at a seemingly random spot. “We are here.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I did my research. What, did you think we stepped through a random teleporter that could lead anywhere?”

“...Yes?”

Shol looked at the blue sky. “Oh System, give me strength.”

“Then why did you let me decide when to escape our crates?”

“I didn’t. You just went out. I was waiting for us to arrive at the optimal spot, which luckily wasn’t too far from where you decided to make your move. Why would you take initiative when I clearly know what I’m doing?”

“I honestly didn’t expect you to think that far ahead.”

“Well, I did. This is where we appeared after teleportation—” he jammed a finger into a tiny blue dot right next to their current location, then at a larger circle in the next continent over “—and this is where we were headed. A city of inner disciples.”

“Sorry,” Jack replied with some embarrassment. “Will they find it suspicious when the starship never reaches its destination?”

“They’ll just assume a prisoner did it. This entire continent is a low-level hunting zone. Prisoners don’t usually attack for no reason…but they could.”

“Hmm. Well, I’m glad it all worked out.”

“It won’t always. You must be more careful. Think twice about your every move. This place is not a game, Jack; it’s absolutely hostile territory and teeming with enemies stronger than you.”

“I’ll be careful,” Jack agreed, nodding along. “Thanks for the reminder.”

“Anytime.” Shol wrapped the scroll up. “You can keep the map. I have it committed to memory.”

“Thanks,” Jack replied as he pocketed it. “Since this is a low-level hunting zone, I can just start here, right?”

“Right. But you’ll have to search a bit—there are usually a dozen teams active at the same time, so there’s a lot of ground to cover. On the bright side, they’ll be flying, so you can spot them easily.”

“Okay. And how will we find each other afterward?”

“I’ll find you. Don’t worry; I have my ways.”

“Okay.” Jack surveyed the wild lands that would be his house for the next few months. It reminded him of the Forest of the Strong. He really looked forward to it.

“And stop grinning,” Shol said from the side, sporting a smile himself. “Good luck, Jack. Please survive.”

“You too, my brother.”

The two clasped hands, looking deeply into each other’s eyes and finding only resolve. Then, Shol streaked upward, lost above the clouds, where he began his journey to…somewhere.

Jack was left alone. On a tree. In the middle of nowhere. With enemies to hunt and a very significant chance of dying in the process.

Despite himself, he couldn’t stop grinning.